The present invention is directed to an envelope assembly for use with Certified Mail. The mailing of a document or the like by Certified Mail, including the manual filling out of the requisite postal service forms, is time-consuming. The preparation of Certified Mail becomes particularly labor-intensive when large quantities of such mail are generated.
As a consequence, prior art workers have devised various types of document mailers and systems for Certified Mail. This is exemplified, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,827. Generally, the prior art mailers and systems are characterized by complexity of construction and use.
Prior art workers have also devised various types of envelopes for Certified Mail, severable from a continuous strip of such envelopes. In the most common practice, the return receipt form is removably affixed to the face of the envelope adjacent one end thereof, or constitutes a separate portion extending from one end of the envelope with a line of perforations along which it may be severed from the adjacent end of the envelope. Many of these last-mentioned prior art mailers are of such nature that the contents of the envelope is located within the envelope at the time of assembly thereof. In other words, these envelopes are not intended to have a document placed in them after the envelope has been assembled and, therefore, they do not constitute multi-purpose envelopes. Envelopes of this general type are usually too wide for use with most conventional computer printers, and optical bar code scanners.
The present invention is based upon the discovery that a simple envelope assembly can be provided which overcomes most of the above-enumerated deficiencies. The envelope assembly can be made of such width that it can be fed through a computer printer and an optical bar code scanner. The envelope assembly comprises a first ply having a transverse fold line formed therein which divides the first ply into a front panel for the envelope assembly and a closure flap therefor. The envelope assembly has a second ply glued along three of its edges to the rear surface of the front panel portion of the first ply, to form the rear panel of the envelope assembly. The Certified Mail endorsement is printed on the front panel portion of the envelope assembly, and the Certified Mail return receipt is detachably affixed to the closure flap.
The transverse opening of the envelope is of such width that an 8 1/2" wide document can easily be inserted therethrough. The envelope flap is provided with one or more strips of remoistenable glue so that once the flap is sealed, the document is securely contained within the envelope assembly. The necessary information for the Certified Mail return receipt, the Certified Mail endorsement, the sender's return address and the recipient's address may be applied through the use of a conventional computer and computer printer. No preparation time is required for the envelope assembly, such as folding or other manipulation. A bar code may be applied to the envelope assembly and use may be made of a pre-selected block of article mail numbers obtained from the post office.
The envelope assembly of the present invention can be made in the form of a continuous strip of such assemblies provided in roll form or zig-zag fold form for feeding through a computer printer. To this end, the strip of envelope assemblies may be provided with detachable perforated edge portions for the drive of a computer printer. For certain types of laser printers and the like, the envelopes may be detached from the strip and individually fed therethrough.
These and other advantages of the envelope assembly of the present invention will be apparent hereinafter.